Call-receiving centers that provide information and assistance to callers are commonly referred to as “help desks”. Help desks assist callers in troubleshooting problems arising from things such as installation and usage of software and hardware. Because help desks are an effective way to alleviate customer frustration and also lower the rate of product return, many corporations provide help desk support to their customers via a toll-free number.
Help desks are manned by a number of human operators that answer user calls and provide assistance to the callers. The operators are usually given special training that allow them to provide help in the areas that users are likely to need help in. These operators are commonly referred to as “experts”. It can logically be anticipated, however, that an expert will not be able to answer every question that a user may have. For this reason, many help desks are set up so that experts are able to turn to others that are better equipped to provide help in a certain area that the caller is seeking help in. This may be done by routing the user directly to another expert-sometimes called a “second-level” expert-via, for instance, transferring the call, or by consulting the second-level expert for help in fulfilling the user's needs.
One way to consult the second-level expert is to place the caller on hold and for the first expert to directly call the second expert. This is unpleasant to the caller that is placed on hold, as they are made to wait alone. A second option is to use an “instant messenger” to send “instant messages”. The instant messenger provides a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text, which is conveyed via computers connected over a network. In some help desks, an instant messaging system is used for communication between a customer and an expert within the company or, alternatively, can be used internally, between a first-level expert to a second-level expert. The instant messaging system works with a web browser or other software and allows a customer to speak to an expert by typing his questions or comments. The expert can answer back by typing into a user interface on the expert's computer. Used internally, an instant messaging system allows the first-level expert to remain on the line, either through IM or phone call, with the user while simultaneously communicating with a second-level expert, often times without the user realizing the communication is taking place.
Because it is impossible to predict what questions a caller may have or the number of callers calling a help desk at a given time, it is not efficient to have first-level experts depending on chance to find a second-level expert available for consultation each time the first-level expert has a question. Furthermore, experts in the same field naturally have differing amounts of knowledge on specific subjects. Therefore, one expert may be better suited to answer a question than is another expert. For these reasons and more, a system that provides only the ability for a first-level user to connect directly to single second-level user is inefficient, and in many cases, ineffective.
Therefore a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.